Daily Bulletin

Wednesday, January 3, 2001

Students get web interface this summer

Architecture likes Cambridge plan

Some highlights of the fall term

Notes on the first day of classes

Shovels are waiting,says grounds foreperson Les Van Dongen. Any morning that
snow falls on campus, "casual" shovellers are wanted. The
job pays $8.50 an hour. Anyone interested should show up any snowy morning
at 7:30 ("dressed to work outside") at the grounds section in the
General Services Complex courtyard, near the smokestack.
Would-be shovellers, and anybody with
questions, can check in with Van Dongen in advance -- phone ext. 4010.

And how did the grounds crew cope with day after day of heavy snowfall
during the Christmas holiday? "We had people in Christmas Eve, Christmas
Day, on the 27th, to get ready for the basketball tournament, Saturday,
Sunday, yesterday . . . the guys got some overtime, anyway!" And by
Tuesday morning, when the campus officially reopened, most roads, parking
lots, sidewalks and stairways were clear.

Students get web interface this summer

Dave Mason, project manager for the
Student Information
Systems Project,
reports that through "the hard work and commitment of the SISP
Admissions Team and many others across campus", the first piece of the
huge new system went into operation shortly before Christmas.

"On Wednesday, December 13," says Mason, "we loaded the first set of
undergraduate applications from the Ontario University Application Centre.
The graduate studies office has also started to enter applications for
fall 2001. Acknowledgement letters will follow shortly."

The Admissions System will be followed by other modules that will
eventually cover every aspect of registration and record-keeping,
including scheduling, course changes, mark submission and transcripts.

Mason says
training for staff in the registrar's office and graduate studies
office began in December
and will continue this month. "In February, training will be
provided for individuals in other areas who currently use the STUDINQ and
APPGRID
applications to support their work in admissions. These computer
applications are gradually being replaced by a series of reports built
with the Cognos reporting tools. Please note that this training relates
to admissions only. STUDINQ will still be the source of student record
information until the summer of 2001. Individuals who should
attend this training will be contacted shortly."

Meanwhile, he said,
detailed planning continues for "the major student
records, financial aid and student financials cutover" in June.
And there's news that will gladden hearts across campus: "We
now have a tentative
rollout
plan for the introduction of the
web access for faculty and students."

The SISP team -- drawn from departments across campus --
announced
in November that "Coop students on-campus for Spring 2001 will be
able to enroll in Winter 2002 classes over the web beginning in July 2001."
By this fall, they're now saying, students will be able to use the web
to check their accounts and update phone numbers and addresses, and faculty
will be able to see class lists through the web. "Unofficial transcripts"
and past grades will follow in October, and exam schedules in November.

Architecture likes Cambridge plan -- by
Barb Elve

A proposal being prepared by a group of Cambridge business leaders designed
to lure the UW school of architecture to that community will be given
serious consideration, says the school's director.

When he was first approached with
the idea
of relocating to Cambridge
earlier this fall, Rick Haldenby admits his initial response was, "We can't
do that -- it's totally unrealistic."
Since then, the level of community support in Cambridge has convinced him
to reconsider the idea of a satellite site
beside the Grand River in
the downtown Galt section of the city.

Preliminary discussions suggest the proposal will be "very attractive", he
says. A formal proposal is being prepared by business leaders who have
asked the city of Cambridge to be a partner as well.

"It will be presented to senior university officials very soon," said
Haldenby. "There's a desire on all sides to have a decision made as soon as
possible, possibly by the February meeting of the board of governors."

The school of
architecture has been suffering space woes for more than a decade,
he adds, and "we've been trying for years to find a way to deal with this.
Our interest as a school would be to stay on the south campus, as a beacon
related to the university entrance. The problem is that I don't know that
there's a way to make the project happen on campus."

Advantages of relocating to Cambridge would be the school's location in an
urban setting in "a beautiful site on the river". The vacant land being
considered for construction of an 85,000 square-foot building is "a brownfield
site" -- formerly occupied by a plant that produced coal gas -- with
"some industrial waste that has to be cleaned up".
Haldenby is confident that this obstacle can be surmounted, and points to the
"extraordinary level of community support" and the "opportunity to be
involved in the process of designing a new building" as plusses for the
proposal.

The biggest concern, he says, is separation from the campus and what that
means in terms of student access, teaching collaborations, and other issues
around support services.
"It's the most controversial aspect of the project."
However, there are analogous situations across North America, he adds,
including that of the Université Laval
school of architecture, which is located on a satellite site.

"The affiliation with UW is not in question. I see this as a process
whereby the university is expanding its presence in the region -- a
satellite which gives the university a new dimension. We feel a part of UW;
we always have and always will."

Some highlights of the fall term

Students (and others) who were away in September, October, November and
December missed lots of excitement, achievement, work, grief and pride
at UW. A few of the fall term's most important stories
from the Daily Bulletin:

Also: more millions of dollars in research funding, renovations for the
art galleries, a triumph for student programmers, and a site that
offers online love connections.

Notes on the first day of classes

All was calm for UW police during the holidays, with no major incidents
reported during the Christmas break, says Sergeant Wayne Shortt.
Aside from a couple of vending machine break-ins -- one at the Physical
Activities Complex and one at UW Place -- "it was a good shutdown for the
university," says Shortt.
"It's been a smooth transition into 2001," he adds, admitting he still gets
a bit twitchy on New Year's Eve, based on past experiences at UW. "I hope
that's a sign of things to come."

This year's
FASS show ("2001: A FASS
Oddity") is just a month
away, and the writers are thinking they'd like to turn over the script
to a cast and crew. The result: auditions for FASS 2001 will be
held tonight, tomorrow and Friday, between 7 and 10 p.m. in Humanities
room 378. As the show's name suggests, Faculty, Alumni, Students and Staff
are all welcome. "We've sold a bunch of tickets already," producer John
Milne warns, so there will indeed be an audience for the show, to be
staged February 1-3 in the Humanities Theatre.

GLOW, the Gays and
Lesbians of Waterloo, will hold its "coming-out discussion group"
on Wednesdays again this term, starting tonight. "We starts at 7:00
p.m. now," a memo notes, "we don't have a set time when the social
starts, and we are meeting in Modern Languages room 104." Topic tonight
for the first of the winter series: "What I Did Over the Holidays".

"Read to me!" says an invitation from the local Volunteer
Action Centre. "Share
your love of reading with a child by becoming involved
with two exciting new programs at the Kitchener Public Library. Reading
Buddies meet once a week with a beginning reader (grade 1-4) at the
library and read stories aloud. This opportunity will take 1-2 hours a
week and is available after-school and on evenings/weekends. Visiting
Library for Kids volunteers share stories with preschoolers in
child-care settings and at community centres. Visits take place every
two weeks on weekday mornings and late afternoons and last about 45
minutes. Helping a child to become a reader is an adventure you will not
want to miss." For more information, the VAC can be reached at 742-8610.